Label:
EMI Records
Release Date:
29/03/2004

You've heard it before, and it was better last time. Unless last time was Good Charlotte, in which case Yellowcard just have the edge. And that's as good an example of damning with faint praise as you'll get anywhere.

Yellowcard are merely the latest band to hop off the boy-band-punk conveyor belt for their fifteen minutes of minor fame. 'Ocean Avenue' is everything you'd expect it to be: standard three-chord pop songs with some snotty-nosed kid whining about relationship problems and how crap life is when you're a mainstream outsider. Never actively bad, but offensive in its lack of imagination and drive. Granted, there's a half-hearted attempt to be a bit quirky, via some comedy violins, but it makes very little difference once you're over the 'Cotton Eye Joe' flashbacks. They'll have their little bit of attention and then, unless they're very lucky, they'll never bother you again. As with Big Brother contestants, you've got to wonder what makes them do it.